Protestants and Patriots: Presbyterians in the Age of Revolution with D. G. Hart

Protestants and Patriots: Presbyterians in the Age of Revolution with D. G. Hart

June 12, 2026 · 1h 11m · Season 1 · Episode 963

About this episode

Darryl G. Hart discusses the historical impact of Presbyterianism during the age of revolutions.

We welcome Darryl G. Hart back to Christ the Center to discuss Protestants and Patriots: Presbyterians in the Age of Revolution , published by the University of Notre Dame Press. Hart traces the transatlantic story of Presbyterianism from the Reformation through the age of revolutions, asking why Presbyterian polity so often became a political irritant in Britain, Ireland, North America, and beyond. The conversation ranges from Calvin's Geneva and the French Reformed connection to the Scottish Covenanters, the English civil wars, John Witherspoon, the American founding, the 1788 revision of the Westminster Confession, and contemporary debates over Christian nationalism. Along the way, Hart helps us see how questions of church government, civil authority, establishment, liberty, and public memory are bound up with the church's confession that Christ alone is head of his church. Watch on YouTube Chapters 0:00 Introduction and the road to episode 1,000 2:00 Protestants and Patriots and the Presbyterian question 3:10 The project's origins and teaching the big picture 5:12 Calvin's ecclesiastical ordinances and Presbyterian polity 7:26 Was the American Revolution a Presbyterian…

People in this episode

Host: Reformed Forum

Guest: Darryl G. Hart

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Notre Dame Press

Books & works: Protestants and Patriots: Presbyterians in the Age of Revolution, Westminster Confession

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